Read Online Cinderella's Big Sky Groom by Christine Rimmer - Free Book Online Page A

to get a little more comfortable. And why not? She’d just slide them back on when it was time to go.
    She pushed the shoes off, tucked her legs up to the side and teasingly warned, “You have to promise never to tell a soul.”
    He set down his brandy glass on the coffee table and raised his right hand, palm out. “You have my solemn word. Now confess. Are they your favorites?”
    She let out a big, playful sigh. “Yes, I’m afraid that they are.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œWhy not? They’re both adorable. They love school. They’re so…happy with the world. So interested in everything. So curious. And so verbal.” She made a show of rolling her eyes. “Boy. Is Sara ever verbal.”
    â€œBut there’s more to it than that.”
    She lifted one shoulder in a hint of a shrug. “No, I don’t think so. And anyway, isn’t that enough?”
    â€œCome on. They’re blond and blue-eyed, bright and talkative. Just like you.”
    â€œLike me?” She frowned. “No, they—”
    He cut in before she could finish. “They remind you of yourself at that age, don’t they?”
    A scoffing sound escaped her. “Of myself? Haven’t you looked at them? They’re beautiful little girls.”
    â€œYou’re beautiful, too.” He said the words bluntly. Flatly. A statement of fact.
    â€œWell, tonight…I mean, I guess I’m different tonight. Not my real self.”
    â€œ Are you different? Really?”
    â€œOf course I am. You saw me this afternoon. Before my birthday appointment with Gracie and Kim.”
    â€œYes,” he said. “I saw you. Before.”
    She didn’t like his tone. Not at all. It seemed to say a lot more than his words did. She stated unequivocally, “I was never like Sara and Jenny.”
    And then she found herself wondering, Or was I?
    When I was five. And my mother was still alive?
    Was I like Sara and Jenny then? Talkative and friendly, sure that the world and everything in it was mine to enjoy and explore?
    It was hard to remember. And maybe the truth was she didn’t want to remember. It made her too sad to go back to those happy times.
    Her mother had died when she was eight. That was when she first started to put on weight, after her mother died. It had been such a tough time. Not only had she lost her mother, but somehow it felt as if her father had gone away from her, too. Horace Taylor was lonely, just like Lynn was. He missed her mother so much.
    And then he had met Jewel Hollis when Jewel hired on as a clerk at the family hardware store. Jewel had two daughters and her husband had left her.
    When Horace had married Jewel, he’d adopted Trish and Arlene. They were all going to be a family, he had said. He and Jewel and their three daughters,Arlene and Lynn and Trish. He had said that family was important, one of the most important things in life, more precious even than diamonds or gold.
    Lynn had believed him. And from then on, her father hadn’t seemed quite so lonely anymore. And Lynn had wanted them all to be happy.
    She’d learned quickly that happiness in her new family could be achieved by doing what her stepmother wanted. By being the kind of daughter Jewel needed. Jewel already had two petite, pretty, popular girls. She needed someone she could count on. A dependable one.
    Lynn had become that. The dependable one. Not popular or pretty, too tall and too plump. But reliable. Someone who helped Jewel with the meals and the dishes, someone willing to pick up after Arlene and Trish. Arlene and Trish, after all, didn’t really have time for chores. Schoolwork was harder for them than it was for Lynn. And they wanted to spend their spare time with their friends.
    â€œI’ll bet you were pretty,” Ross said. “When you were in kindergarten. I’ll bet you were good in school and that you laughed and that sometimes your teacher had to